Dive Rite incident.

Could someone help me diagnosis a problem? I own a Dive Rite reg, with a cold water kit, and love it. I had it serviced in April at a LDS. My dive history with that regulator since it was serviced was: 1) a pool session for a Dry suit class. 2) A 60ft Lake Michgan wreck dive (called off after 15 minutes due a severe decrease in visibility) 3) And, today, an attempted 100 ft wreck dive.

Here is the issue: As I was descending down the line, everything went well until I hit about 75 feet when my reg started breathing hard. At 91 feet I stopped completely, becasue it felt like I was sucking air out of a close to dry tank (not that I have ever experienced this, but it is what I imagine it would be like). I immediately check my SPG, and the tank was full. I checked predive/dive switch on the regulator , followed by adjusting the knob that controls breathing ease. Nothing worked. I switched octo to see how it breathed, and it was completely normal. I switched back to my primary, and still could not breath out of it well at all, even after doing adjustments. I thumbed the dive and went up using my octo. At the saftey stop, I switched back to my primary, and it breathed somewhat normal again.

My Question is: What could cause a regulator to do soemthing like that at depth? Last year I did at least 3 wreck dives to 132 feet with no issue, so I know how my regulator should breath at depth. Hoses were not kinked. My buddy checked me out when I had the problem. He saw no leaks.

One more thing to add to the equation: when I did my pool dives for the drysuit class, I noticed water leaking in through the regulator when I went inverted. I asked my instructor about this, and he said that this it is normal for water to enter your regulator when you are inverted. I have never heard that (nor experienced it, but I have to admit, I don't recall the last time I was inverted outside that class). I believed him when he told me this, but after the problem I had today, I am starting to wonder about it. Does anyone have a diasgnosis for the problem?

First check the Intermediate Pressure, best guess is that might be set to low, like way low. Service tech might have done a bad job.

Yeah some water will get in your 2nd stage if you're inverted, not a big deal. As soon as you right yourself and exhale it will be gone.

*Note* This is all wild speculation.

My wife has the same reg and had the same problem. Diverite clamed that there was nothing wrong with the reg., that the tank valve was only slightly open and that would cause that problem. The sucking the air out of the hose is exactly what she experienced. We pulled the bs flag on them and they came up with two other ideas.

That the tank you’re using has a rust flake that got caught up into the tank valve. That will cause the same problem and then after enough slow breaths sometimes it will dislodge and fall back into the tank causing it to work again.

And lastly the cone shaped filter is plugged up. We pulled the filter off the first and it was new. I said "whatever, your an idiot, the reg had problems" and 5 minutes later we had a brand new one, it was replaced.

Good luck with diverite, they can be difficult.

best,

-=ben

edit: As per the water in the reg thats BS too. A reg sholdn't leak. I have never had a reg leak water in from any direction in the water colum that was in good working order.

Maybe the diaphragm is caught or misaligned in the second stage? issues with the valve in the second stage? (you did mention that the octo was fine, so that could potentially rule out 1st stage issues)

My first idea was the tank valve thing (been there, done that) until you got to the part about the octo breathing normal. If one has problems and the other not, that makes me think the 1st stage regulator is OK (theoretically, the IPs for both should be the same). I suspect you have some sort of restriction in your 2nd stage reg or hose (probably either a pinched oring or some sort of contamination). A restriction in a reg causes no noticeable symptoms at the surface but as you descend and the reg has to flow more air for each breath, and the restriction begins to choke it off. If you don't know how to service the regs yourself, I would reccomend you take the reg to another DiveRite service center and discuss the issue with them. It has been my experience that DiveRite makes good gear and has good customer service. I suspect yours is not a "design" issue but rather a servicing issue. Get it checked before diving with it again.

BTW, congrats on handling the emergency. It seems you did the exact right thing and did not panic. Many other people would have paniced and bolted, possibly making a bad situation even worse.

Oh, and as to the water in the reg thing, it is not BS. It is true. Personally, I've never had a problem with it, but some regs are better at "breathing dry" than others. In fact the latest issue of Scuba Diver Magazine has a review of several regs. One of their test criteria is how dry the reg breathes. The better regs of course will be "drier" and the cheaper ones my breathe a little wet when you do a hand stand on the bottom.

I need to start reading more throughly.....I didn't see that you said your octo worked fine.

So scratch what I said about IP, that's not it.

Second stage regs can leak when inverted because the exhaust valve is open on the *top* and lets water trickle in. Gravity pulls water down etc. Normally you never notice, and shouldn't notice water coming in though.

First test I would do is switch 2nd stage hoses and see if your oct still breaths well. I have heard of the inner lining of hoses coming loose and partially blocking the hose. Then you should have the reg serviced. There is nothing more frustrating than taking something in you know is not working and having the tech say they couldn't find anything wrong.

Thanks for all the help in trying to diagnose the problem. I will take my reg into a different service center tomorrow and explain the situation. I will post the solution once it is found.

I took my regulator back to the center that first serviced it. They told me that the Intermediate Pressure was definitely set too low, and they apologized for that. I ask them why my octo worked fine if the IP was the problem. His response was, "I don't know, I just know that the IP was set too low and that it should solve the problem."

I hoped it works. I'd hate to ruin another dive because of a bad regulator, and I especially don't like checking if my gear works at 80 feet. Should I pick up my reg and try it, or take it to another shop for a second opinion? (My mind is wondering how my octo - an APEKS 20 - could work and my primary - the Diverite- not if the IP was set too low. That should have affected both, or am I wrong?):huh: